Today, the immigration compromise foundered in the Senate.
Here are reactions from the conservative blogosphere:
Dafydd at Big Lizards:
I cannot, will not join in this Snoopy dance of glee at the complete inability of Republicans and Democrats in the Senate to come to agreement on a very fair and reasonable immigration compromise. Every single substantive objection on either side can be fixed. The fixes are not difficult to find. There is only one objection that is insurmountable: liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans appear have allied to force the bill to collapse.
Ed Morrissey at Captain’s Quarters:
The GOP needs to hang tough on immigration. We have a historic opportunity to do something right for border security and immigration policy for the first time in generations through the control of the House, Senate, and White House. Just as they did with judicial nominees, the Republican Senate caucus has shown a lack of will to fight for its agenda — and they will inspire a similar lack of enthusiasm among conservative voters in November if they continue to run up the white flag every time the Democrats challenge them on core issues.
Maybe now the government can work on a strategy to enforce the existing laws!
It’s good to know that some Republicans in Congress are actually conservatives who care about this country. I hope the amnesty-for-illegal-aliens bill continues to stall. Pardoning illegal aliens and allowing them to continue benefiting from their illegal activity sends a strong message to others inclined to disregard America’s immigration law. It also sends a message to America’s hard-working legal citizens and residents: screw you.
On Monday, April 10, the anti-borders crowd is coming out of the shadows again to pressure spine-challenged Beltway pols to pass the sellout plan. Got a camera handy?
DJ Drummond at Polipundit:
The problem then for President Bush is not so much that he is on the wrong side of the issue, but that as the Chief Executive of the nation he has not done so well in bringing the teams together in a common effort, and in explaining his priorities and vision to the nation. People sense that Dubya’s on the right road, but the lack of firm details makes it hard to stay on that road with him for many people. This allows Democrats to weasel out of the fact that they either have no alternative to present, or else simply do not wish to control our borders, and it allows egotistical politicians to demagogue the issue and prevent effective discussion of the issue.
John at Power Line:
So now is the time for conservatives to make ourselves heard. We are running a poll on Power Line News, where you can express your preference as to what the top priority of our immigration policy should be. We hope the results may have some influence with lawmakers–Republican lawmakers, anyway–as they approach a decision on this important issue.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-’08) wanted a vote on the Hagel-Martinez compromise, and so he sent the bill back to the Judiciary Committee with instructions that the committee strip out the Sessions-Nelson enforcement bill and add in the Hagel-Martinez compromise.
The committee complied, and sent the bill back to the floor with the changes Frist wanted. This morning, the Senate voted 38-60 against cloture on the Hagel-Martinez compromise, and 36-62 against cloture on the original Judiciary Committee bill – effectively killing both. The similar margins, the staffer says, “show you that the compromise didn’t get us very far.”
Eeek. I wish you’d left of Dafydd’s embarassing (to him) commentary. His post blithely, and naively says, essentially, “I don’t understand why both sides just don’t sit down and fix all the probelms!!!”
Unfortunately, each side’s “problems” are the other side’s goals.
The Senate doesn’t even come close to reflecting the country’s position on this issue.
I see the country pretty much wants
1) A true barrier to illegal immigration either physical or through enforcement
2) No amnesty and no programs that are amnesty by another name
The only area where there may be some difference sentiment is to how aggressively to work at returning the 11 million+ illegals.
But regardless we have a ‘reform bill’ which works towards the opposite of what the public wants.
There are three components to the immigration problem. Until we address all three, we will still have a major problem. A fourth action would be of great benefit to our economy, but does not directly contribute to the “immigration problem” in itself.
1) Illegal border crossing. We need to fence the high traffic areas, and increase physical and electronic control over the lower traffic areas. This is essential, a given. However, it can NEVER succeed without also addressing directly the other two components.
2) The poor Mexican economy. With their resources, Mexico should be enjoying 8-10% annual growth right now, instead of won’t do” – the problem is “jobs there aren’t any Americans to do. With 4.7% unemployment, we are perilously close to theoretical “full employment” and the resulting labor shortages and wage-price spiral. Even if the maximum 1.2% of unemployed Americans took over the illegals’ jobs {we can NEVER get below 3.5% unemployment; it just isn’t possible}, and half the 1.7% of “discouraged workers” who have quit looking and aren’t included in the unemployment figures {we KNOW that most of them will never work again from past experience – most are over 50, and will scrape along until they can draw down pensions and SS}, we would STILL be 3 million bodies short.
That’s reality. Now, as Larry Kudlow points out, we could also
4) Eliminate the insane limits on H-1B Visas for skilled workers. As Kudlow notes, the more skilled workers enter our economy’s increasing productivity, the better!
How exactly did people expect to verify how long an illegal immigrant had been in this country? The honor system? Please…
Why cant We build a wall along the whole border and have cameras along say every mile or so with ranger watch towers a couple of miles back..think of all the jobs we could create in this endeavor ? we could actually get something accomplisheed for the money !all we would have to do is cut into some of the pork spending for a year or 2 and it would work.
I guess this being naive seeing how washington does,nt get anything done that makes sense for the people.
OOPS
I made a impossible suggestion in the above entry : all we would have to do is cut into pork spending for a few years ,Yeah Right thats more of a sacred cow than social security, Soooo…why dont we developed a national loterry to pay for it, with no money allocated for politicians at all..
Look man you cannot march the streets of the United States shouting “Si Se Puede!”, This is America and you must speak english! You cannot expect to be recognised as an American citizen speaking Spanish. I may be for them becoming citizens if certain rules are applied, for one, you must speak English. I totally understand why the Americans are angry. The mexicans coming into their country as if it is their own, if you want to be American at least act like one…
its unfair to those who patiently came to this country LEGALLY..if the illegal aliens do not respect the law here then I don’t think they deserve to be given citizenship, they should play by the rules of this country and not theirs
I will vote against ANYONE that votes for ANY kind of amnesty.